Newport Beach To Reopen City Buildings For In-Person Services

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — Newport Beach officials announced it's resuming in-person services at city buildings, citing a decline in COVID-19 cases around Orange County.

The city's permit counter, revenue operations and community centers reopened Monday after being closed since Jan. 3 in response to a winter surge in COVID-19 cases brought on by the omicron variant. Face-coverings going over a person's nose and chin are still required when entering a city building, per California's mask mandate.

Although city buildings have reopened, Newport officials said residents are encouraged to conduct any business remotely whenever possible as community transmission from the virus remains high.

Hospitalizations related to COVID-19 have been on a downward trend lately, with the Orange County Health Care Agency reporting Monday that the numbers dropped from 967 people in the hospital on Saturday to 934 on Sunday.

The daily new case rate per 100,000 residents has also lowered, going from 158.2 on Friday to 130.8 on Monday, the agency reported.

However, deaths from the virus have remained steady. January has seen 128 people die from COVID-19, with 34 of those deaths occurring since Friday.

The total number dead in Orange County from the virus is roughly 6,100.

City News Service contributed to this report.